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Nailed
"Nailed" is the ninth episode of the second season of Better Call Saul and the nineteenth episode of the series altogether. Teaser The episode opens on a rural two lane road near a decaying billboard, a blue sedan parked behind the billboard to hide it from passing motorists. Nearby, Mike Ehrmantraut is wearing a ski mask, and busy stringing a rope with a wheelbarrow, fed through hooks attached to a pair of wooden posts. Meanwhile, we see Hector "Tio" Salamanca's ice cream truck driving down the road, the driver listening and singing along to La Sonora Dinamita's "Mi Cucu". Mike stands behind a tree, anxiously watching as the truck comes into view and the music becomes audible. When the ice cream truck is seconds away from the billboard, Mike yanks on the rope, dragging a garden hose perforated with long nails into the middle of the road. The driver frantically slams on the brakes, but it's too late: the truck hits the strip, blowing out the tires. The truck careens onwards, swerving back and forth as the driver struggles to maintain control, eventually going off the road and coming to a rest in a ditch on the roadside. Knowing he's being ambushed, the driver grabs his gun from the glovebox and gets out of the truck. He walks around the side of the truck and gets a glimpse of the car parked behind the billboard. He barely has time to register this when Mike suddenly puts a gun to his head. Mike disarms the driver, binds his hands behind his back, and also blindfolds and gags him, with duct tape and throws him on his stomach. With the driver detained, Mike breaks out an electric saw and begins slicing into the truck's tires, looking for something to steal. Eventually, in one of the rear tires, he finds about $250,000 in cash stuffed between the rubber and the axle. Mike takes the money, loads it and all of the supplies for his trap into the trunk of his car, and then drives off. Summary Chuck dresses and heads downstairs, where Howard is waiting for him. They are scheduled, along with Kevin and Paige, to go before the New Mexico State Banking Board to get final approval for the new Mesa Verde branch. Howard insists that he can do it alone, but Chuck insists on going along. They get into Howard's car and drive off, unaware that Jimmy is waiting in the park across the street, watching them. Howard and Chuck go to the courthouse. Chuck almost has an EMS attack going through the metal detector, but manages to keep his composure. They, plus Kevin Wachtell and Paige Novick, are next shown sitting before the board. Kevin starts to deliver an opening statement in support of the application, arguing that Mesa Verde's new bank branch is beneficial for everyone. The argument is cut off when an aide delivers a file to the board's commissioner. Taken off guard by the sudden interruption, Chuck asks what is going on, and the aide asks if he can clarify for them the address of the proposed Scottsdale branch. Chuck recites the address, or rather, the phony address created by Jimmy's forgery - 1216 Rosella Drive. The hearing breaks down as the plaintiffs and board members try to figure out why the application lists one address but the original submission lists another (and the actual) address, 1261 Rosella Drive. Things get worse when Chuck refuses to believe, in spite of the documents Kevin and Paige have brought with them, that the '1216' address is wrong, greatly frustrating them. The commissioner tells them that they will have to return in six weeks with correct paperwork. Chuck returns home, wondering how this discrepancy could have happened, even as Howard tries to reason with him that mistakes happen all the time. After Howard leaves, Chuck looks at the Mesa Verde files in his house and finds that they all have the '1261' address. He immediately realizes Jimmy's complicity. That night, we see Mike sitting in his car outside the ice cream parlor where Hector and his crew have meetings. Based on the way Hector throws a clipboard at Nacho, he's not too happy about one of his trucks being hit. Later, Mike goes to a bar with some of his newly acquired money. In a moment of jovialness, he decides to order drinks on the house for everyone in attendance. Jimmy and Kim work to set the office space up, hauling away the dentists' chairs, reupholstering the floors and repainting the walls. The painting is interrupted when Kim gets a call from Paige, and it's great news for her: due to the entire paperwork issue, they have dropped Mesa Verde and are back in Kim's hands. Chuck is also ready to hand over the files for the account. Jimmy and Kim drive over to Chuck's house, grounding themselves as they enter. When Jimmy tries to unlock the door, he finds his key doesn't work. Ernesto opens the door, and tells them that Chuck apparently had the locks changed. Chuck is sitting in a chair in the living room, brooding, when Jimmy and Kim enter. After sending Ernesto on his way, Chuck immediately accuses Jimmy of sabotaging him. Kim stands there silently as Chuck lays out an (unknowingly) accurate summation of how Jimmy committed his forgery of the Mesa Verde documents to humiliate him at the hearing. The whole time, Jimmy feigns ignorance, despite knowing full well that his brother is right. So Chuck gives Kim an ultimatum: she must go to Kevin and Paige and make a full disclosure, or risk disbarment. But much to Chuck's and Jimmy's surprise, Kim sides with Jimmy. She points out that he has provided no evidence other than "knowing my brother for his entire life" which is merely anecdotal evidence. So anyone who looks at Chuck's claims will likely come to a different conclusion: that Chuck, working for hours on end at a typewriter by lantern light, made a mistake and is trying to blame Jimmy for it. Chuck makes a last-ditch plea for Kim to believe him, to which Kim responds that she knows Jimmy is shady and cuts corners, but he's only that way because Chuck has always judged him for his past and never wanted him to succeed. Jimmy helps Kim move the Mesa Verde files back to his car. Once they sit down Kim suddenly hits Jimmy several times on the shoulder. As it turns out, she does know Chuck is right about Jimmy's forgery and will make more effort to find a way to bring him down. Some days later, Jimmy and his hired camera crew go to a local elementary school, now accompanied by a makeup artist. Once the students have gone inside from recess, they set up on the playground, with the crew being positioned to film Jimmy standing in front of the flagpole. The shoot is interrupted when the school administrators come out, preparing to kick them out for trespassing. Jimmy manages to talk them down by convincing them that he's doing a documentary on a famous individual who went to the school, specifically Rupert Holmes of "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" fame. Though the makeup girl tries to protest that Holmes was actually from Britain, Jimmy is able to charm the administrators into acquiescing to his requests. Meanwhile, Mike is eating breakfast at Loyola's Café and Diner and reading the morning edition of the Albuquerque Journal with anticipation. He's also unusually flirty with Fran, the waitress. This is short-lived when he gets a phone call from Nacho, who demands that Mike meet with him right away. Mike is already at the meet point when Nacho arrives in his van. Nacho relays how Hector's mule got hit by a lone hijacker that took $250,000. Naturally, Hector is furious and demanding answers for what happened. But then Nacho drops a bombshell: he knows that Mike is behind the attack. He explains that the driver was found hog-tied on the side of the road without a single mark on him. He also knows that most crews in the game would have killed the driver. And Nacho knows of only one individual who would rip off drug money and leave a witness alive, only one criminal who is hesitant to kill: Mike. Nacho admits that he's not shaking down Mike because what Mike does is his own business. However, Hector has given Nacho orders to pick up the driver and find out what he knows, because he and Mike are dead men if the driver knows Mike. Apparently Nacho is under the impression that the driver was spared because he was in on it with Mike, because he doesn't believe it possible for Mike to have figured out the truck and the location of the money all by himself. Mike assures Nacho that the driver had nothing to do with what happened, and the driver won't recognize him because Mike wore a ski mask and didn't say a single word. Satisfied, Nacho prepares to leave when Mike asks him, why wasn't the robbery in the papers? At this Nacho realizes, Mike left the driver alive because he wanted the police to find the truck and launch an investigation into it, hopefully linking back to Hector. Nacho is furious that Mike wanted to put Hector on police radar, since Nacho would surely get caught up in the investigation. Nacho comes pretty close to pulling his gun to kill Mike, but Mike tells him he's done dealing with Hector. Nacho relaxes, and Mike can tell he actually looks shaken. So he asks again why the robbery didn't make the papers. Nacho explains that a good Samaritan driving along came upon the truck driver. He cut the driver loose and the driver immediately called Hector. Hector's crew came out and cleaned up the whole scene, like the incident never even happened. As for the Samaritan, Hector apparently shot him in the face and buried him in the desert. The two men then split, though while sitting in his car, Mike looks unsettled. His beef with Hector is not over, not yet. Jimmy stays the night with Kim. As he prepares to go to sleep, Kim tells Jimmy indirectly to make sure he's covered his tracks so Chuck can't go after him for the forgery. Jimmy sneaks out and drives back to the late night copy shop where he made the forgeries. He gets there just in time to see Ernesto walking out and getting into his car. Jimmy panics, as it's only a matter of time before Ernesto returns with Chuck. Once Ernesto is out of sight, Jimmy reenters the copy shop and approaches Lance, the on-duty clerk he met during the forgery. He explains to Lance what's going on, how Chuck is coming back to ask Lance about Jimmy. As Jimmy elaborates, he produces money from his wallet, making clear he's bribing Lance. Lance is reluctant to help if doing so means he gets in trouble with the police. Jimmy assures him that Chuck will make it seem like so, but it won't. Jimmy asks about the surveillance cameras and is told that the cameras record on a twelve hour feed. He offers $100 for Lance to erase the footage of Jimmy right now in the shop. Lance ups the bribe to $200, which Jimmy willingly gives him. The bribe complete, Jimmy goes across the street and waits. Minutes later, Ernesto returns with Chuck. Chuck deliberately chooses not to take his space blanket with him when he and Ernesto enter the shop. They approach Lance and Chuck produces the photo Ernesto had already shown him. Lance pretends to not recognize it, and Chuck promptly calls him out for lying, since he apparently already said "yes" when Ernesto made his prior visit. So Lance claims that he was mistaken and he's never seen Jimmy. Chuck becomes increasingly agitated as his EM hypersensitivity starts to kick in from exposure to the lights and copy equipment. When he inadvertently snaps at another customer seeking help, Lance tells Ernesto to remove Chuck from the store since he's causing a disturbance. Chuck tries to go after Lance, but eventually the electromagnetic fields prove too much for Chuck to take. He falls forward, hits his head on the counter, and falls to the ground, bleeding from the scalp. Across the street, Jimmy is horrified at seeing Chuck collapse. He silently watches Ernesto, Lance and the other customers gather around Chuck, while pleading that someone call 911. Credits Main Cast * Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill * Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut * Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler * Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin * Michael Mando as Nacho Varga * Michael McKean as Chuck McGill Guest Starring * Rex Linn as Kevin Wachtell * Michael Chieffo as Mr. Ughetta * Josh Fadem as Joey Dixon * Cara Pifko as Paige Novick * Manuel Uriza as Ximenez Lecerda * Elisha Yaffe as Lance * Hayley Holmes as Make-Up Artist * Mark Margolis as Hector "Tio" Salamanca Co-Starring * Brandon K. Hampton as Ernesto * Julian Bonfiglio as Sound Guy * Vincent Fuentes as Arturo * Debrianna Mansini as Fran * Roseanne Vau as Principal * Wendy Scott as Secretary * Deborah Chavez as Teacher * Camelia Raybon as First Staffer * Barney Fuller as Second Staffer * Giuseppe Quinn as Loyola's Customer * Philip Shortell as Bartender * Allie Sundstrom as Copy Shop Customer #1 * Erika Erica as Copy Shop Customer #2 Uncredited * Justin D. Moore as Longshoreman in bar * Michael E. Stogner as Bar Patron Trivia *The bar Mike is shown throwing money away at is the same one where he beat up Walter White in "Thirty-Eight Snub". Featured Music TBA es:Nailed Category:Better Call Saul episodes Category:Season 2 episodes (Better Call Saul)